QuoteProject
it is either make this thing permanent inside of you or forever just climb draggled up into the conning tower every time for one short glimpse of the horizon.
Tom Wolfe
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Choose to integrate lasting change within yourself rather than seeking temporary glimpses of success.

This quote underscores the importance of internalizing positive change and transformation, suggesting that rather than fleeting moments of inspiration or achievement, one should strive to make meaningful and lasting improvements within oneself. It highlights the contrast between the temporary satisfaction of peering at distant goals and the deeper, more fulfilling experience of genuinely embedding those aspirations into one’s life.

Themes

ChangeSuccessTransformationInspirationHorizon

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about self-improvement.

More from Tom Wolfe

No machines will ever truly fully figure the brain out, because the brain's performance is constantly altered or else constrained by this inanimate, rogue artifact you can't control, namely, speech.
Tom WolfeRead
And - of course! - the Non-people. The whole freaking world was full of people who were bound to tell you they weren't qualified to do this or that but they were determined to go ahead and do just that thing anyway.
Tom WolfeRead
The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.
Tom WolfeRead
Driving a stock car does not require much handling ability, at least not as compared to Grand Prix racing, because the tracks are simple banked ovals and there is almost no shifting of gears. So, qualifying becomes a test of raw nerve - of how fast a man is willing to take a curve.
Tom WolfeRead
I have discovered that for me - now, maybe it doesn't work for everybody - for me, it is much more effective to arrive at any situation as a man from Mars than to try to fit in.
Tom WolfeRead
There has been a time on earth when poets had been young and dead and famous - and were men. But now the poet as the tragic child of grandeur and destiny had changed. The child of genius was a woman, now, and the man was gone.
Tom WolfeRead

Similar quotes

Of old the expert in battle would first make himself invincible and then wait for his enemy to expose his vulnerability.
Sun TzuRead
I think when we don't know what to do it's wise to do nothing. Sit down quietly; quiet our hearts and minds and breathe deeply.
Maya AngelouRead
A person will gain everyone's approval if he mixes the pleasant with the useful.
HoraceRead
Hope is a very unruly emotion.
Gloria SteinemRead
One of the chief triumphs of modern mathematics consists in having discovered what mathematics really is.
Bertrand RussellRead
It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.
Victor HugoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.